Guns N’ Roses Member Hints At ‘Very Special Guests’

Guns N’ Roses drummer Frank Ferrer has announced that his side project Mule Kick will perform tonight in New York at Arlene’s Grocery in New York with ‘VERY special guests,’ leading to speculation his GNR bandmates will join him.

There is a rumor on MyGNRForum that Steven Adler arrived in New York last night to join Guns N’ Roses for their Appetite for Destruction 30th anniversary performance at the Apollo Theater last night, but there is no proof or photos so it should be taken as an unsubstantiated rumor at this time.

Ultimate Classic Rock have up a new Appetite for Destruction 30th anniversary article. Below is an excerpt:

The original cover art of Appetite was never “banned,” as much as it was used to garner headlines and sell the idea that GNR had gone rogue. This was, of course, a delicious exaggeration. The original cover includes a malfunctioning robot in a trench coat standing over a defiled woman. Her panties are pulled down below her knees, and she’s topless as if she’s been raped by the crab-like hands of the robot. It was a low-brow painting by artist Robert Williams, from 1978 titled “Appetite for Destruction,” which Axl discovered at either a gift shop on Melrose or at Tower Records on Sunset, and then presented to the label as a joke. Zutaut and Niven quickly realized there was a unintended genius behind Rose’s attempt at being an amateur art collector.

With the threat of 25,000 nuclear warheads the U.S. and Soviets had aimed at strategic targets in 1987, he was echoing the anxiety of the age, where Americans were symbolically being raped by corporate America. While estimates vary depending on the source, there were between 30,000 to 65,000 copies of the original artwork printed on the LP, exclusively, which were then sent to record stores that had selected to carry it. The skull-and-cross tattoo design was an option on the purchase sheet, so two covers were printed for record store clerks to select from – and that apparently screwed things up, as nobody caught on.

The confusing compromise between the label and their distributor, Warner Bros., included covering the cassette with the more commercially viable crucifix art, while the inner jacket would include the Williams painting. It was a messy compromise, but a fantastic PR tactic. It would also prove to be a serendipitous decision, as the skull-and-cross “alternative” had a broader appeal as both an art piece, heavy metal comic, bands crest and a way more stylish T-shirt. This second design sold Guns N’ Roses like Kiss for the next 30 years.

In 1986-87, cassettes were the most popular medium for listening to music. At the time, young Americans had more tape players than record players. It was the age of the Walkman, so Appetite was listened mostly on the cassette. That means that the “robot rape” impact was negligible, in terms of sales, but it did sell GNR’s dangerous appeal – especially to rebelling teens and their uptight dads who had watched the PMRC censorship hearings in 1985, making Guns N’ Roses “too hot for TV.”